Breathing techniques during labour? My pre-natal classes sucked.

[butterfly23]

I did go to a pre-natal class, but she spent literally 10 minutes talking about breathing techniques (the only thing I was interested in hearing about) and even that was uninformative.

I have read on this site that with the right breathing.....breathing through contractions...it can make a huge difference to pain management.

Is there a website I can read up on it, or does someone have some quick tips they can give me?

 

[LovelyGirl85]

My OH said to me about my breathing, imagine you're blowing up a balloon.

simple but so effective! So anytime a contraction came I actually visualised blowing up balloons to help my breathing. Really worked for me!

 

[kiwimama]

Hypnobirthing is all about breathing through contractions, relaxing and about visualising an easy, calm birth. Marie Mongans book is the most well known.

 

[bassdesire]

In all honesty, I don't think I focused on anything except the pain. Somehow that enabled me to have the natural birth I wanted. Seriously, all the exercises and random techniques just flew out the window. All I needed was people to tell me that I could do it

But I know a lot of people found the breathing techniques useful in earlier labor. I guess I did breath and meditate in the earlier stages. Once things got going, I just tried to keep ahead of the contractions!

 

[Mervs Mum]

I think breathing is key as the more oxygen you have flowing through your blood to you uterus which is a huge muscle, the more effective it will work. The less tension, the less adrenalin. the less adrenalin, the more oxytocin.

I recommend the hypnobirthing type breathing techniques which can be read in the mongan book or with any of the various birth 'hypnosis' programs.

 

[lilly100]

i agree that breathing helped me when in my previous 2 labours, and what also helped was someone breathing with me or telling ''breathe in......... and out....'' sounds funny and qiute simple but it gave me something to focus on and the breathing does help.
Also try not to fight against the contractions - by fiight against them i mean tense up, stress etc, as each contraction - as horrible as they are - brings you closer to your baby, try to remember that it is a natural thing fo your body to do, and by breathing and relaxing through each contraction it lets your body do what it needs to do to have your baby.
I hope all that made sense, i tried to remember what i learned in my classes and what i tried to put into practice during my labours. I found it really helped up until 7-8cms when i lost all common sense lol

 

[Mervs Mum]

All great advice Lilly! I always breath with my clients if they are finding things are becoming intense and losing a little of their focus. You can add visualising things to that too, like walking up a flight of stairs or a big hill and then back down the other side with the wave of the contraction.

 

[Bournefree]

I completely agree with you, why isn't there more done on breathing in labour in the antenatal classes? - Perhaps I though they would be like the TV shows and I would be sitting with my OH behind me focusing on breathing and support.. but like you I was wrong and that was the bit with my first I was really looking forward to.

I don't have any sites or advice, except to say that my OH was a great help, in just reminding me to breath - that sounds really trivial now, but while I was in transition and having a bit of a panic, it was a huge help. I really do think we could have benefited from some practice before hand.

Just as MM has said I am such a strong advocate for not breath holding, and increasing your oxygen to your body, which is working so hard, and this in turn will alleviate tension, and help your muscles continue more effectively. I see it as an essential part of labour... and it is equally important not to hyperventilate, as that is going to make you feel really dizzy.

Hope you find the techniques you are looking for, I'm going to be doing the same... and I don’t doubt that I will still really need someone (hopefully my OH), to remind me to breath.
XxX

 

[whoops]

We were advised to take a normal breath in then breathe out for three times longer, imagining we were blowing out powder. If that makes sense.

It took a bit of time for me to get the technique right, but for the weeks before my labour, I practised every time I felt Braxton Hicks. I'd say that's one of the reasons why breathing was so successful for me and kept me calm during my labour.

 

[Nyn]

I never took any classes. My mw just kept repeating relax your legs, relax your bottom, let the baby come down by itself, open your mouth (she kept opening my mouth with her finger). The whole thing was like a mantra.. relaxing and opening the mouth made me breathe in the right way. No idea how that was lol, but it worked